Community Corner
Eagle Scout Helps Restore Age-Old Local Cemetery
The Revolutionary-era grave site, Castner-Compton Cemetery, received a much-needed 'makeover' from local Eagle Scout Michael Sheelar.
The seemingly forsaken property in the woods between Vogt Drive and North Bridge Street was all but forgotten about—just a mountainous heap of waist-high brush and trees that were brimming with dense growth.
But that was before Boy Scout Michael Sheelar, 17, of Troop 46 from Martinsville, got involved for an Eagle Scout project.
The property, which is also the eternal resting place for up to 100 Somerset County residents, is known as Castner-Compton Cemetery. It was largely forgotten until Sheelar teamed up with the Somerset County Historical Society to restore the grounds.
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“The oldest graves in there are from Revolutionary War veterans,” Sheelar, a junior at the high school, said. “But the cemetery was a mess. There were bushes and plants and trees everywhere, even over my head in certain parts.”
With the help of about 15 people—including fellow troop members, parents and volunteers—Sheelar worked on the hilltop cemetery for three to four days during Bridgewater-Raritan High School’s 2012 spring break. Each day they worked for about five hours, but there always seemed to be a new obstacle.
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“We constantly worked,” he said. “We removed growth and huge branches. But the biggest tasks were the trees. My friend’s dad owned a chainsaw, so with that, we removed two massive trees and just wheel-barrowed them out.”
Dave Sheelar, Michael’s father and committee chair for the troop, said it was a great project.
“It helped teach him learn how to plan and cooperate," he said, "and it helped teach project management and negotiation.”
After getting permission to go to the grave-site from the Historical Society and the county, Michael Sheelar took his idea to the troop council, where it was vetted for worthiness. Afterwards, according to Dave Sheelar, he presented his work to the chairperson, who granted his stamp of approval.
“I am grateful to those who do take an interest, like this Scout,” said Sarah Fisher, formally of the historical society, who compiled research on the cemetery. “They understand the same need to save this history, even if others have forgotten. We need more kids like that. I am scared to think that once people stop caring, as they have, what will happen to these cemeteries.”
Since the restoration was done in 2012, the site has not been regularly maintained. But, according to Dave Sheelar, the preservation of Castner-Compton may very well become an ongoing scout project.
Cemetery Still in Need of Attention
Castner-Compton’s story, however, is not so simply told.
“Only scattered and broken headstones testify that it serves as the final resting place for many Somerset County residents,” said Fisher in a 2012 newsletter.
According to that same article, the cemetery holds the remains of veterans from every early American war. Burials include three from the Revolutionary War, two from the War of 1812, one from the Spanish-American War and four from the Civil War.
Much of the reason why the Castner-Compton history is so readily available is because of a man named Charles Miller. In 1942, Miller, an Iowan, concerned himself with the depletion of the former burial ground because his own grandparents were interred there.
Miller formulated a plan to buy surrounding land and make it a cemetery under New Jersey law. Then he’d be able to provide regular service to the property and have the legal right to accept bequests from family members, according to Fisher.
He bought 1 acre of land, but was then unsuccessful at registering with the county clerk. He received a title for it in the 1960s, but did not make his tract a cemetery, and when he died in 1994, the acre was passed along in his estate.
The next year, his children donated it to the historical society, along with a manuscript he had written about the burial ground. It is this manuscript that still provides historians with clues about the stories of those interred at Castner-Compton.
Since 1995, teenagers (who used headstones as a fire-pit and burned aerosol cans on grave-sites), have vandalized the land. It was in disrepair until Sheelar and his volunteers came along, but it still is in need of regular care.
Fisher worries it may face a fate similar to that of another cemetery near Neshanic Valley Golf Course. Over time, plantings have been done on the ground that actually went over parts of the burials.
“At some point, if anyone cares, this could be the fate of the Castner-Compton Cemetery,” she said.
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